This review may contain spoilers
The Story of a Nice guy betrayed by almost everyone he meets.
Feel-good, warm, easy watch, light-hearted on and on the adjectives are espoused in the comments section and while there is definitely levity to be found here, as well romance and friendly hugs, you need to be prepared for a lot of not so "light" fare in order to earn it.Suicide (Its SK Drama how could there not be) is a running theme. Corporate corruption, of course we have to have some villains, and multiple evil CEOs (One of which beats their own son with a golf club, tells him to kill himself, and then has him thrown out on the curb, because he can't walk.) Characters are ruined to actual homelessness and imprisoned falsely for attempted murder. And for half the main running time the plot centers around a single grandmother whose grandson is in a coma as she runs her small Ox Tail Soup business being targeted by the main big bad corporation to try and drive her out of business.
So, this wasn't a relaxing watch by any means.
However, the Male Lead Kang Soo (Played boyishly and bright eyed by Go Kyung Pyo) is one of the most refreshing, kind, gentle, nice, warm, and caring characters I have had the fun to watch in a very long while. This isn't an anti-hero, or deeply flawed individual story. No, it is the story of a hero in the truest sense of the word. He is a young man with a horrific backstory who has persevered with deep moral convictions that he holds to steadfastly. When he even opens up the Strongest Deliveryman food service in the second half of the series, its motto is "Be Nice" and you know that he really means it.
Our Female lead Dan Ah (Chae Soo Bin) is a rough and tumble beautiful tomboy who has had her own share of troubles. Unlike our ML she goes in the opposite direction, vowing to look out only for herself, remain disconnected from all, and save up enough money to get out of the hell that is South Korea. Nice and warm are not part of her vocabulary, at least at the start.
In the beginning each our leads blossom relationships with other characters, bringing in our second ML (Kim Seon Ho in a role switch compared to his fame) Jin Gyu and second FL Ji Yoon (Go Won Hee playing as cute and naive as she can). Both of these leads come from deep pockets of money and are the polar opposites of Kang Soo and Dan Ah.
Kim Seon Ho's portrayal of a truly nasty individual with very low self worth and even lower moral scruples is as shockingly believable and well acted as any of his heart warming characters. If you came to watch this to get your KSH fix, maybe look elsewhere because he is a pretty nasty character that causes a lot of issues. My stomach knotted up watching him snake his way through the first half of the story. Of course, his character is very quickly launched on a path of redemption, but there will be plenty of bumps along this road.
The first 7 episodes are taunt with drama, betrayal, character development, and wrist wringing story-lines. But after episode 7, where the story decides to let characters off the hook (In what is a troubling Kdrama trend) and resolve crimes and plot points in a matter of minutes (Thumbs Down Boo) it begins to slow and switch gears. Through to episode 10, there is still gas in the tank and there are some punches yet thrown. But after episode 10 it just sort of meanders around for a bit as it develops romances, somewhat awkwardly, and sets everything in place for the ultimate ending conflicts and showdowns.
As everyone becomes more desperate towards the end, our evil corporation decides to play illegal and dirty to get what they want. While doing so, characters who you thought were steadfast friends and loyalists betray our ML and the company he has built, which was done to save them from the start. It is rough road that will ultimately prove effective at tearing down our nice guy.
You realize the point of the show is to prove being a good person will prevail even though the world views niceness as a weakness. This will warm your innards to no end and is a wonderful message to get across, but it comes with some caveats. You do honestly see the flaws in this idea as well. Many of the trials and tribulations could have been averted with a bit of resolve, while still not betraying the core values on display. One of the largest problems of the series is how it easily forgives those that transgress against our hero. Only he bares the brunt and weight of wrongs. Everyone else gets a pass. Near the end a great betrayal by a close friend (Which grows as the friend hires more drivers siphoning even more from our ML failing business) is instantly forgiven and forgotten the moment the friend shows back up. Not only is this unsatisfying to watch, it makes you wonder what was the point of the story line while also painting the ML as quite the doormat and push over.
In the end you will be both satisfied and disappointed. The series leaves us on a high note with a bright optimistic future likely for those involved. But it is strangely unsatisfying. You will not get closure to any of the side characters. The relationships built between some characters seems to have not endured, and well, for me, none of the romances ever seemed to truly take flight. They were enjoyable enough to watch, but nothing to write home about, which is ultimately how I felt about the whole series. Happy I watched it, was enjoyable enough as I went through it, but nothing is honestly that memorable. 7.0/B-/ 3 1/2-Stars.
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I deffietly recomend this drama, it is a emotional ride you won't get bored of.
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was it good?
well to be honest it wasn't good, it was okay. there are some good moments in the show, well actually the only good moment is where they cook Jang Dong Soo (Jo Hee Bong) and the restaurant lady Soon Ae (Lee Min Young) had scenes they were absolute funny along with Oh Jin Gyu( Kim Seon Ho) and Lee Ji Yoon(RoleGo Won Hee). the Comedic scenes are the only reason why I stuck around but I still ended up getting disappointed in the end, maybe this show isn't for me maybe someone else may like it but not me.Was this review helpful to you?
I will always remember the tight jeans
Lots of beautiful women wearing some of the tightest jeans in a Korean drama.Story was okay but does not go deep or far.
It's like a manga.
Female lead and male leads are decent enough. But the story is kind of boring unfortunately. Not much depth. Lots of cliched and recycled characters.
High heels and tight jeans helped the scoring.
16 episodes way too long. Needed at most 9 or 10 episodes.
In the end it was too generic story and characters. And dialogues were so uninteresting.
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cute
The storyline was cute, competitive in business, and loved the little town. All the actors did well in this storyline. The main leads were awesome even if it was 4 main leads. I love how the storyline made Chae Soon Bin's character a strong character lead with good martial art. I love the theme of scooter bikes that do delivery. Thank you to the writers, producers, and the rest of the team. It seems like these KDramas start playing one song more than one time in the background, but it was all good.Was this review helpful to you?
Genre : rom-com
Story : A common delivery boy's story of struggle and success in the world dominated by money and politics. It is a story that students and people struggling with daily life would connect to. The story especially is pretty sweet and it makes you happy and root for the regular characters you see everyday. Go Kyung Pyo is the epitome of nice-but-crazy-guy and stays up to his character with his cute smile.The side stories aren't developed well, it might be the writer's fault but the story was rushed up and too much happened too soon towards the end.The side-story that especially touched me is the character growth of the chaebol who disregards the struggles of common life which shows us that there is good in every one. It is funny, sweet and the story makes you happy and believe that may be there is good in this world after all.
Actors : If you're looking for strong female characters, this is the drama to go for. All the female characters are strong and if you don't believe me, the main female lead actually fights with guys. Chae soo bin convinces us that she's a strong character but at some point, the chemistry between the main leads is a hit and miss. You're patiently waiting for the cute antics of Go Kyung Pyo that you hoped they would've used but it never comes. Kim Sun Ho is really adorable and the development showed in his character is almost heart-touching and realistic. Go won hee's quirky character will make you smile.
Will i watch it again? No, (I will prefer other dramas of Go Kyung Pyo if i miss him)
Will i recommend it to anyone? May be if they're looking for a light and fluffy rom-com.
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Not the best, but watchable.
Strongest delivery man is the kind of drama that you watch when you’re bored of intense shows, something you take as a breather. There are many dramas which cater to such moods, and are easy to drop because there’s nothing happening, but with SDM you stick through the end because it does have some substance. The four main characters cover four different types of personalities — main male lead is an optimistic justice driven independent guy, main female lead is a cynic who wants to get out of Korea because she doesn’t see any hope for growth for people like her, the second male lead is a spoilt brat who is a shame to his conglomerate family with no meaningful purpose and the second female lead is someone from a rich family but who is tired of having her family make decisions for her and yearns for independence. Each of the leads are parallels of each other and it’s fun to watch them grow. The supporting cast is fun too, there were times when I was looking forward to their scenes more than the leads.Even though there’s lots of things happening, many of them felt a little unrealistic. For example, everything that the ML sets his mind to comes into picture in a matter of few days, it’s not that easy to start a company and I found it unbelievable that he kept hiring people and signing with franchises with next to no benefit simply because of the good of his own heart while sustaining his company. But, it’s a drama that gives hope to youngsters and allows you to dream.
To wrap it up, I would say that this is a simple drama that you can watch when boredom hits you. At times it’s monotonous and predictable but it’s okay. There’s nothing very exceptional about it but it’s comforting in a way.
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This review may contain spoilers
Sigh… where to begin. Strongest Deliveryman was a drama I never expected to watch because I could not find it online anywhere. I am absolutely in love with Chae Soo Bin and had seen countless of her dramas, so Strongest Deliveryman was definitely one I had also wanted to watch. When it appeared on Netflix, I got incredibly excited and began watching it the day I added it to my list. I didn’t come in with high expectations since MyDramaList tends to be pretty spot on with ratings, so I knew that the drama was not going to be anything super great. However, I was still pretty disappointed and here’s why. Strongest Deliveryman is a drama cheesier than Zach Choi’s mozzarella corn dogs, and I personally was willing to let it go since it was a comedy and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. However, at some point I was just craving even the slightest bit of realism to this whole mess of a story, since it just got less and less realistic as the episodes went on. Let me make a quick list: Devoted deliveryman squad who was willing to do anything for our ML, chasing criminals, the entire cheesy plot that involved “brave” young adults fighting against and defeating a chain of restaurants, some weird side storyline with the owners of the noodle shop, and honestly a lot more stuff I already don’t remember because I watched this two weeks ago. While I adore Chae Soo Bin, I absolutely LOATHED Dan Ah in this drama. This gal is constantly finding something to complain about and get angry at, and she misuses her knowledge of martial arts to essentially beat people up if they make her irritated. I am a big believer that violence is not okay even if it comes from a woman. Imagine if Dan Ah was a guy who put people in headlocks and hit and slapped them whenever he felt like it. Not okay, is it? So WHY is it okay for Dan Ah to do it only for the producers to write it up as silly humor? I cringed every time she got physically abusive with someone… Lastly, I would just like to quickly complain that this entire drama is incredibly overdramatized, especially toward the end. Kang Soo’s reactions are honestly incredibly extreme when he interacts with his mother. He is legit ready to scream like a little child every time he interacts with his mother, while he instead could be a bit more adult about it and talk to her calmly about why she abandoned him as a child. I could never relate to a parent abandoning me so what do I know, but I feel like half of his crying scenes were very dramatic for absolutely no reason.I suppose the cast of this drama was quite acceptable, however I have to say I expected a little more from the second leads, given how their romance was so raved about on some of the reviews I read. Oh well. Anyhow, probably don’t waste your time on this drama, however it wasn’t that long anyway, so I guess watch it if you REALLY want to?
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the second leads on the other hand had evident character growth which the main leads lack and they were so fun to watch i literally skip most of the parts of an episode and watch only their part
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This review may contain spoilers
It is worth a watch, but weirdly if you said this series was filmed in the year 2003, I would believe you - minus the implementation of an app. Something about the show looked and felt old. The message of the series however was excellent. It shows that you can really make ideas work if you have a bond with people who are all aligned on a goal, and emphasising decent values and virtues to attain the goal - people often lose their morality in the name of capitalism, but this series tells you that there's always another way.
It's a good show to watch if you're making a decision in your career and want to be reminded that it's ok to do the right thing.
I loved the character development of Jin-gyu, played by Kim Seon-ho.
I'm not too much a fan of the lead actresses, but Lee Min-young and Kim Hye-ri in the show I must say are incredibly beautiful.
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